I fell over recently and hurt my wrist, not badly but, having recently moved, wasn't sure where to go to get it checked out.

This looks very useful*, it gives advice on which local health services are available to you, when and how to use them and how to find out more information.



Self-care: treat minor illnesses at home such as; a sore throat, cough or blocked nose.

Pharmacy: high temperatures, diarrhoea, emergency contraception, cystitis, medicines review.

GP:  any worrying health problems, such as persistent vomiting, severe stomach pain, high temperatures (children), rashes.

Walk-in Centres: strains or sprains, cuts or bruises that can't be treated at home, infections.
Derby Walk-in Centre, 8am til 7.30pm, with appointments available out of hours (6.30pm til 8am) by telephoning your GP surgery out of hours.  You will be assessed on your symptoms. Osmaston Road, Derby DE1 2GD.

Call 111 free: when you need medical help fast and it's not an emergency.

* http://www.derbyshire.nhs.uk/ccg/Choose-Well-Guide-Southern-Derbyshire-CCG.pdf

Doctoring in Horse-and-Trap Days

by Harry Roberts (appeared in The Countryman magazine in 1946)

My first medical practice was in the little village-town of Hayle in Cornwall, where I lived for nearly ten years at the end of the last century.  I paid three hundred pounds for it, without seeing it; indeed I bought it by wire.  Then I got myself a smallish cob, sound and well-broken in, together with a dog-cart and harness.

... Except on Sunday morning, one rarely saw a Cornishman walking any distance.  Anything more than a mile was covered by bicycle or donkey-cart; and every married man expected his wife to bring to his place of work, at midday, a hot Cornish pasty wrapped in a clean white cloth.  In money matters they were very honest and self-respecting .  They paid - in relation to their financial status - high fees, and they never grudged paying bills of many pounds for treatment for a sick child, but they liked to get the skill and attention they paid for.

... An old doctor, my nearest fellow practitioner, when called at night to a confinement at some distance, would, if he found that things were not moving very quickly, have his horse taken out and stabled, and would himself remove his boots and coat and get into bed beside the patient.  

Here, after telling the nurse in charge to wake him when there was anything doing, he would finish his night's sleep in peace.

from 'Words from the Countryman' edited by Valerie Porter